Frequency – Break, Break, Break

By: Cade Taylor

“Frequency’s” episode Break, Break, Break pushes Frank (Riley Smith) and Julie’s (Devin Kelley) already strained relationship to the max when the woman Frank was in a relationship with while he was undercover goes knocking on Julie’s door. As well as pushing relationships, Break, Break, Break dives into Satch’s past and shows just how drastically his life has changed due to being a policeman.

The episode begins where we left off last week with the death of Amanda (Amber Friendly). Raimy is dealing with the death of Amanda carefully because she helped Frank save her back in 1996, but Satch (Mekhi Phifer) is taking it way harder. He realizes that in the past twenty years so much has changed (his wife leaving and the death of Frank) and nothing he did has been worth living his life. And that is why Satch decides to put his papers in and retire, which means that Raimy now has to take orders and go to Moreno (Anthony Ruivivar) to do her job. Obviously not happy with what she’s hearing, Raimy makes her way over to Satch’s home where he is currently living like a broke college student.

While present Satch is grieving over how his life hasn’t turned out the way he expected past Satch is shouting with joy as he has just been put on the short list for NYPD sergeant. But that doesn’t last long before he and Frank are on another lead towards the Nightingale, Bill Bradley. It turns out that Bill Bradley is the owner of the burned truck, but Bradley swears that he leaves the vehicle at his summer cabin in the Catskills where he hasn’t been in over two years. Unfortunately, the Catskills lead nowhere.

Meanwhile, back in 2016 Raimy keeps pushing Satch to help her check out the Catskills, but he is reluctant since his and Franks investigation in 1996 didn’t come up with anything. But Raimy is persistent enough, which leads Satch to take her into his garage where he has dedicated an entire shrine to the Nightingale. In public, he isn’t very open about his obsession with the Nightingale, but at home it’s all he can think about.

Flashback to the day where Frank is promoted and everyone is happy. That is until Satch accidentally spills the beans on Frank having to go undercover before he could tell Julie and Raimy. Julie is, understandably, upset, but Frank insists that this is a good thing for them and that it would only be a couple of months’ tops. Well, we all know how that turned out. Flash forward a few years where a random woman frantically knocks on Julie’s backdoor, looking for Frank and explaining to Julie that she was a part of Frank’s life while he was undercover.

The unknown woman being Miracella (Alyssa Diaz), Frank’s girlfriend from when he was undercover. Jules is noticeably shocked and ends up taking it out on Frank. The argument that they have is nothing that hasn’t already been said; Jules thinks that Frank changed while undercover and Frank thinks that Jules is in a relationship with Ted. The argument escalates and nothing gets resolved so Frank leaves to go back to his place and confront Miracella.

On top of Frank telling Miracella that they are over and he no longer wants to be involved with her, he also lets her know that she needs to get out of town. Moreno is taking everyone who knows that he’s dirty out and she could very easily be next. Meanwhile, Julie goes to Ted’s for a “study date” letting loose and relieving some tension. Although Julie has no reason to be upset with herself, you can visibly tell that she immediately regretted her actions.

Back in Satch’s garage, Raimy comes across an old file that might be a lead to the Nightingale even if the victim wasn’t a nurse. Larissa Abbott may not have been a nurse, but she did go missing in the Catskills in 1994 and only two bones were found – her two forearms. This makes Raimy believe that her hands had been tied with rosaries. When she and Satch talk to her brother he mentions another job that nobody had known about with Larissa moonlighting as a camp nurse at a youth camp – Hideaway Youth Camp.

Moreno blackmailing Miracella made Frank angry; so upset that he corners him in an elevator in the precinct and punches Moreno in the face. He also reveals to him that he knows he set him up and tried to kill him. Part of me was like, “Yeah Frank! Kick his butt,” but another part of me got scared. Frank has apparently forgotten who he’s messing with and this could come back to bite him in the butt.

Satch and Raimy make no hesitation to make their way to Hideaway Youth Camp to look for clues; the first clue being a statue of a woman praying with rosaries wrapped around her hands. They both decide to split up, looking for any clues that they can. Scenes like this remind me why I could never be an investigator because just being alone in the dark makes me jumpy. Being in the middle of nowhere out in the dark by myself where there might be a killer? Nope.

Raimy hits the jackpot when she begins to search the infirmary; finding a bloody zip tie on the floor and a giant cross in a bathtub surrounded by religious paraphernalia. They finally get the precinct involved, getting evidence from all of the cabins. This lead may have just opened their eyes to the Nightingale’s first kill if they can get the DNA to match Larissa Abbott. Along with maybe finding his first kill, they might have just found the Nightingale’s motive as well. Due to the images of prayer rituals for the dead in the paraphernalia, Raimy and Satch think that he was baptizing his victims, getting them ready for a holy death. He sure is one twisted guy.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be “Frequency” without a nice heart-to-heart between Raimy and Frank. Frank finally opens up to Raimy about the affair he had while undercover, also explaining that it’s part of the divide between him and Julie. This isn’t much of a shock to Raimy, not much is when you’ve grown up thinking your father was a horrible man the entire time. So, instead of grilling him, she just tells him to fix it.

This episode was a thrill ride and we are getting closer and closer to finding out who the Nightingale is. A part of me feels like Moreno might be involved with it somehow, I’m just not positive on what his motive would be. This episode may have been played out very well, but I’m still curious about one thing; why didn’t Raimy have Frank check out the Catskills and look for exactly what she found? Oh and don’t think I forgot about the fact that we still didn’t get to see Gordo. He was mentioned, but it doesn’t count if we don’t get to see him.